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Fighting for Open Source Sustainability: Introducing Code Sponsor

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Re: Fighting for Open Source Sustainability: Introducing Code Sponsor

#11

Post by styfle »

I've been using Code Sponsor for a month or two now.

The best way to describe it is something between a generic Google Ads network and a invite-only Carbon Ads network. And it's really meant to go in your README.md file.

So this results in a few things:

1. Broker. Sponsors can select which repos/languages/tech/etc they want to advertise to and developers can select which sponsors are relevant to them.

2. Transparent. Developers can see which ads a sponsor will display and how much they pay per click (usually $0.40). The ads are usually just text with a couple emoji that fit well into the README.md design and are loaded as an svg.

3. Limited. Sponsors pay a fixed amount so if a repo is really popular and displaying ads, it may stop displaying after the money is paid out to the developers. This means you may just get a generic ad that recommends using Code Sponsor near the end of the month, like this repo: https://github.com/styfle/geoslack

Caveats: it seems the Code Sponsor is not open source :(

Re: Fighting for Open Source Sustainability: Introducing Code Sponsor

#12

Post by ghuntley »

jwildeboer wrote: post #2

Maybe I'm missing something, but I couldn't find a source for their claim that "Two-thirds of the top OSS projects are maintained by one or two people". How many projects? How are they rated "top"? When you make such a bold claim, you should be able to back it up with verifiable sources IMHO. Also, being a Red Hatter that has welcomed thousands of people in our New Hire Orientations, I dare say that we actually do em…

Nadia left her job in venture capital last May and started work on a thesis. What is not venture backable in tech right now, that tech absolutely cannot do without?

Projects that had present, not future, value. Were actively used by Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Netflix, even governments. Directly responsible for tech’s rapid rise, as Mark Suster once explained but they hadn’t captured the financial value they deserved.

Capturing of financial value for these projects is extremely important yet isn't realised and can have devastating effects. Remember heartbleed?

I encourage you to speak with a maintainer heart to heart of any moderately successful opensource project to tell it like it is. Here's a 4min clip from the PythonAU keynote delivered by Russell Keith Magee that does exactly that.

https://youtu.be/0t85TyH-h04

It's a never ending stream of notifications that contain abuse and demands for unpaid work with occasional moments of the highest of highs (ie someone sending you a thankyou postcard via snail mail or asking how they can help you out)

Open-source keeps burning out brilliant software engineers. For the longest time opensource has been talked about user freedoms but has been mums the word to "at what cost"? Production is still expensive and the cost is too high.

0) https://youtu.be/VS6IpvTWwkQ

1) https://www.fordfoundation.org/library/reports-and-studies/r...

2) https://medium.com/@nayafia/how-i-stumbled-upon-the-internet...

3) http://nadiaeghbal.com/oss

Re: Fighting for Open Source Sustainability: Introducing Code Sponsor

#14

Post by jlgaddis »

> "... while part goes to maintaining Code Sponsor itself."

If their intentions are "pure" and their primary purpose really is to help open-source developers, they should either be a non-profit and/or completely open and honest and publish the sizes of each "part". Preferably, that would look (at minimum) something like:

  October 2017

  Income from sponsors:  $ x
  Paid to developers:    $ y
                         -----
  Kept by CodeSponsor:   $ z
Where z == x - y, of course.

Re: Fighting for Open Source Sustainability: Introducing Code Sponsor

#15

Post by cavneb »

jlgaddis wrote: post #14

> "... while part goes to maintaining Code Sponsor itself." If their intentions are "pure" and their primary purpose really is to help open-source developers, they should either be a non-profit and/or completely open and honest and publish the sizes of each "part". Preferably, that would look (at minimum) something like: October 2017 Income from sponsors: $ x Paid to developers: $ y ----- Kept by CodeSponsor: $ z Whe…

  October 2017

  Income from sponsors:  $ 7,437.20
  Paid to developers:    $ 3,413.20
                         -----
  Kept by CodeSponsor:   $ 4,024.00
This does not take into account the $6,000 we spent to become a sponsor for Github Universe.

Re: Fighting for Open Source Sustainability: Introducing Code Sponsor

#17

Post by jlgaddis »

cavneb wrote: post #15
jlgaddis wrote: post #14

> "... while part goes to maintaining Code Sponsor itself." If their intentions are "pure" and their primary purpose really is to help open-source developers, they should either be a non-profit and/or completely open and honest and publish the sizes of each "part". Preferably, that would look (at minimum) something like: October 2017 Income from sponsors: $ x Paid to developers: $ y ----- Kept by CodeSponsor: $ z Whe…

October 2017 Income from sponsors: $ 7,437.20 Paid to developers: $ 3,413.20 ----- Kept by CodeSponsor: $ 4,024.00 This does not take into account the $6,000 we spent to become a sponsor for Github Universe.

Thank you for the transparency! Apologies if this is already posted somewhere and I just didn't see it.

Re: Fighting for Open Source Sustainability: Introducing Code Sponsor

#18

Post by cavneb »

jlgaddis wrote: post #17
cavneb wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

October 2017 Income from sponsors: $ 7,437.20 Paid to developers: $ 3,413.20 ----- Kept by CodeSponsor: $ 4,024.00 This does not take into account the $6,000 we spent to become a sponsor for Github Universe.

Thank you for the transparency! Apologies if this is already posted somewhere and I just didn't see it.

Oh.. it wasn't. I posted it in response to your query :-D Like I said, I'm an open book. I just want to help sustain OSS.

Re: Fighting for Open Source Sustainability: Introducing Code Sponsor

#20

Post by cavneb »

Siilwyn wrote: post #19

Does anybody know what the click / view ratio is like on small projects? I know it depends on a lot of things but I really have no idea at all... Would it be below one percent or more around five, or something different?

Depending on the project, we have seen between 0.4 - 1.2% click rate on average.
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